A month back, Andrew and I was invited to The Living Room (one of the more popular radio programs in Singapore) to share about our soon to be released book “The FAQ Book on Public Speaking”.

We had so much fun bantering with Stanley that the segment was extended from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, with a good half of the session jam packed with public speaking tips.

Click here to download the recording.

If you have listened to us, you will know that we had a lot of fun on radio. Here are some pictures that were taken during the break.

L-R: Me, Stanley and Andrew

Couple of things I have learnt from Stanley as well.

Preparation, preparation, preparation. Even though the interview segment was only 30 minutes long, the 8 questions that Stanley asked were formulated based on hours of research he did on us and the book. Had he not done his research, he will not have raised interesting questions pertaining to our age and our book. Stanley also cleverly crafted his questions (eg. what are some of the popular questions being asked?) which led us to share with his listeners a good 15 mins of public speaking tips.

Have a script. Are deejays always that eloquent? Apparently not. They rely on scripts that are written for the ear. Before the show, they will verbally run through what they want to say and then have their lines typed. This way, they can speak with more assertiveness and less mistakes.

Build rapport. Stanley made a point to break the ice with us 15 minutes before the actual interview. He started with seeminglessly non-related questions (eg. how did you guys got here?) and moved on to something more substantial like “how did you guys got to know each other?” He even test run some interview questions so that we got used to conversing with each other. It became so natural that for a while, we forgot that we were being interviewd. It felt more like a conversation over dinner than a serious live interview. Likewise, before you deliver a speech, you might want to find opportunities to build rapport with your audience offstage. If that is not possible, make sure that your introduction allows you to do so. For example, asking a question, running a simple activity or making them laugh with a funny anecdote. Remember, rapport before message!

For those of you who missed the live interview, you can click here to download the recording.

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Speech Coach

P.S: Make a choice right now - buy the hard copy of The FAQ Book on Public Speaking on Amazon (and study it)! For those of you from States, you will be delighted to know that you will only pay $19 USD because of the pre-order discount. Here’s the link - get the book before the price gets raised.

For my fellow Singaporeans, the hard copy will be out in Popular, Borders and Kino mid Dec. Will inform you of the special discounts when the date nears. Talk soon.

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